Vegetarian Nasi Lemak

Vegetarian Nasi Lemak

I believe many of the seasoned cooking members like me do not actually keep records or measure their cooking ingredients on a frequent basis. Particularly when you and I cook almost everyday and are used to playing around with flavors or food combinations based on personal preferences.

I have never given much thought the necessity to do so until when I started to post some of the home cooked food pictures on Facebook and from the response from people asking for the recipe. This morning I spent several hours cracking my head to recount the steps and going through the kitchen scales to weigh the ingredients used for the requested recipes.

Thank you for the interest and I hope you enjoy the outcome as much as I enjoy the preparation process. Cheers and have a wonderful day! 

Sambal Tumis

300g Dry Chili
Water (for boiling)

3 Red Chilis
2 Bird's Eye Chilis (Chili Padi), Optional
300ml Water (for blending)
100g Tomato, optional (diced, for blending)

75ml Cooking Oil
90g Sugar
15g Tamarind slice / paste (mix thoroughly with 1 cup water)
4 slices Galangal
1 stalk Lemongrass (crushed)
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Vegetarian mushroom granules
Lime juice (optional)

• Boil 300g of dry chilis with sufficient water for 10-12 mins or until softened. Remove from heat and discard the water.

• Using a blender, combine the above dry chili, red chilis, chili padi and 300ml water and blend into fine paste.

• Heat up oil in a wok, add in the above blended chili paste and stir fry under low heat until fragrant or when oil starts to separate. 

• Add in tamarind water, galangal, lemon grass, salt, sugar and mushroom granules to taste. You may add further spices or seasoning based on your preference. Stir fry the mixture until slightly thicken but runny. Add lime juice (if using) and bring to boil.

• Dish out to cool before storing in glass container.

Coconut Fragrant Rice

2 Cups long grain rice
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
6 Pandan leaves (knotted)
3 Stalks Lemon Grass (crushed)
6 Slices of Ginger
1 Fresh Coconut (Grated only the white part & mix with water to get 4 Cups of coconut milk)

• Wash the rice and strain.

• Add all ingredients into the rice cooker.

• Leave aside for 1 hour before cooking.

• Serve with roasted groundnuts, sliced cucumber and vegetarian ikan bilis (anchovies). For me, I stir fry 30g of vegetarian ikan bills with 2 tsp of the samba paste and 1 tsp of sugar as I am not so much into plain ikan bilis (anchovies).